By Terra Arnone

The Ghost Orchard By Helen Humphreys HarperCollins 256 pp; $29.99

With a knack for rich, lyrical storytelling, it’s no surprise that when award-winning author Helen Humphreys sat down to write a book about one of North America’s most popular fruit – the apple – she unearthed and explored a sweeping history that reveals more than most might expect about this modest rose-descended crop. Here’s what we learned from Humphreys’s The Ghost Orchard:

White Winter Pearmain: It’s only right we start our lesson where Humphreys did, two bites into what’s believed to be the world’s best-tasting apple. First documented in Norfolk, England as far back as 1200 AD, the White Winter Pearmain is a late-blooming variety (ripe in October and still good through December) with an elaborate mouth-feel: sweet and crispy; a little juice in each bite; and notes of syrupy pear rounding out its finish. Pearmains are yellow-skinned with rosier tones on their sun-stricken side, labeled a dessert apple for their sweet, honeyed taste.

Pomaceous past. A member of the rose family, apples date back some 4.5 million years to Kazakhstan, where large forests full of the trees grew wild across its countryside. Over time, and with increasing cross-continental trade, the apple made its way to Europe and then on to North America, colonial settlers carrying seed and sapling to their new home’s harsher winters. Holding up admirably in our colder climate, the apple became a staple in the colonial diet as both sustenance and spirit, eaten as a fruit and consumed in equal quantity as cider. In the early 1800s, American colonial leaders enacted a law mandating that all homeowners plant an orchard of at least 50 apple trees in their first year on the land.

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The good, the bad, and the drinkable regardless. Apples propagated from seed planting, like the 19th century crop grown courtesy of Mr. Johnny Appleseed, aren’t entirely fit for eating. Nicknamed “spitters,” these seed-grown apples suffer from cross-pollination; when a bee visits blossoms on one tree, it’s unlikely it’ll revisit that same one again. Carrying pollen on its body from one plant to the next creates confusion in the apple’s breed, and those motley genetics don’t make for great-tasting fruit. All of today’s commercially grown apples are raised via grafting, a process wherein one rootstock shares a single genetic makeup to keep all offspring in check. While spitters aren’t fit for swallowing as fruit, they’re twice as good in a glass, used often for alcoholic cider production instead.

Heeeere’s Annie. While Johnny Appleseed might have the lion’s share of fame in North American folklore, history suggests a fairer sort might be more responsible for the apple’s North American popularity today. In 1790, a North Carolina Quaker named Ann Jessop travelled to England with her daughter. The pair took a two-year tour of the mother country, and Ann didn’t come home empty-handed. She brought back seeds for the pea-like alfalfa sprout as well as scion for 20 different varieties of apple. Ann packed a range of cooking and eating apples, altogether spanning a long season from July to January in bloom, and included several varieties still popular today: the russet, golden russet, red pippin and our aforementioned favourite, the White Winter Pearmain. Those apples earned Annie Jessop neighbourhood notoriety, where her fruit’s popularity blossomed and spread clear across Annie’s home state and into Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri as well.

Pour one out. The United States Division of Pomology once tasked a group of watercolour artists to catalogue the nation’s nearly 17,000 types of apples; sweet stipend or not, it was no easy task. Since that late 19th century decree – resulting in a still-admirable watercolour catalogue of over 7,500 breeds – many beloved apple varieties fled from orchard and out to pasture, their extinction today a loss to be sure. While many varieties fell out of favour due to sub-par taste or poor seasonal survival, their names are worth spots on the public record still. A palate-whetter, if you will:

1) The Anti-Know-Nothing, likely named for the independent U.S. political “Know-Nothing” Party, whose membership opposed Catholics and immigrants

2) The Catface, a Kentucky late-bloomer of oblong shape, noted for its red-striped and green-yellow flesh with a lightly acidic bite.

3) The Fisher, a notably large apple dating to 1852 that bloomed late-season and was described in catalogue as “a handsome long keeper”

4) The Sweet Seeknofurther: say no more, really, this medium to large New Hampshire apple was honeyed and juicy indeed. Ripening very late, the apple was yellow and green with a sun-tinged rosey hue on some sides.

5) The Democrat: Native to New York, ranging in colour from white to crimson, this humble variety has been described as tender and juicy, blooming late season for best enjoyment. Lost in time now but forever in our hearts, perhaps we’ll see a new crop of Democrat bear fruit in four years.

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